Track Record
by Feilyn
Summary: A collection of thirty drabbles on Percy and Annabeth's relationship, ranging from ridiculous to 'oh god my feelings'.


**1. run**  
Percy has longer legs and more muscle tone than Annabeth, but she somehow still manages to win their impromptu race across the Camp.

"You…cheated," he gasps, feeling like his lungs are trying to punch their way out of his chest. Annabeth barely has a hair out of place.

"Of course," she says smugly. "You just said who could get here fastest, you didn't specify how."

Try as he might, he can't fault her logic. And he does try, but she puts a stop to that, grabbing his shirt and tugging him towards her.

It's not hard. He's not exactly unwilling. "What are you doing?" he murmurs, a smile playing about his lips.

"Collecting my prize."

**2. fall**  
It happens so slowly that Percy isn't even aware of it.

Of course, Percy isn't aware of much when it comes to feelings and girls and Annabeth in general, but he thinks he could have figured it out a _little_ sooner. So does she.

It's only when it's too late that he figures it out, when she's so much a part of him that he doesn't think he could exist without her. Somehow, Percy Jackson's fallen in love with his best friend, and he can't even put his finger on how.

**3. spin**  
The world spins as Annabeth throws him over her hip, and that arm at his throat is actually really uncomfortable, but that's okay because she's here and they're together and so long as that second one doesn't change, Percy thinks he can deal with anything.

**4. smile**  
He has the most irritating, obnoxious smile in the world, and Annabeth keeps finding herself doing new things to try and drag it out of him. It's not hard.

**5. catch**  
He can't promise to catch her when she falls, because he's too busy falling with her.

**6. hide**  
Annabeth tried to hide her feelings, but he's just so _Percy_. On the one hand, this ends up making it impossible for her to really hide the way she feels – he brings it out of her in ways that surprise even her sometimes. On the other hand, it means that he's too oblivious to notice, anyway.

**7. chase**  
"I swear on the gods," Percy pants as they run, hands locked tightly together. "You should really change your name to Annabeth _Chased_."

**8. laugh**  
No one else can make her laugh like Percy Jackson. Of course, no one else does as many stupid, ridiculous things as Percy Jackson, but maybe that's a part of it.

**9. wait**  
He leaves (is taken), but Annabeth's not the kind of girl to wait for anyone. She looks and she searches and she hunts, and when they're finally together again, she finds out that he didn't wait either.

**10. dream**  
His dream makes her nervous and excited and so stupidly in love all at once. Seriously, what kind of guy goes around saying that he wants to settle down and raise a family with a girl some day, but still accepts that she might not want that?

Her guy.

**11. grow **  
Somehow, despite months of separation and not even being able to remember her properly, his feelings for Annabeth have only grown stronger. And he would have done anything for her before Juno decided to conduct her little exchange trip, so he's not too sure what he's going to do with all these emotions now.

**12. strike**  
"Hey, ow - _Annabeth!_ Jeez, you'd think us dating would mean that you'd hit me less, not more."

**13. hold**  
He held onto her memory for months as something precious – one of the only precious things he has left to him.

Holding her in person is better.

**14. scream**  
They argue, obviously – they've been sniping at each other since they were twelve and that isn't about to change just because they're dating. But it never reaches that point of no return, the place where the argument becomes more important than they are. They've been through too much together to bother with that.

**15. throw**  
"No – _no_, Percy Jackson, don't you _dare_-!"

There's a shriek and a loud splash as Percy Jackson throws his girlfriend into the water before turning around and running for his life.

**16. open**  
Percy doesn't keep any secrets from her, not any more. What's the point? They've seen each other at their worst and at their best, and everything in between. There's nothing left to hide anymore.

**17. call**  
Sometimes, Percy wishes that cellphones weren't such a problem for demigods. It's kind of awkward to call your girlfriend when you know there's a hippie goddess listening in.

**18. slip**  
It's a total slip of the tongue, the first time he says it. They're swimming, and he's actually letting the water touch him – something Annabeth takes full advantage of, pressing her hands down on his shoulders and using her weight to shove him under the lake. He comes up spluttering, and the chase is on.

They're soaking wet and laughing so hard it's difficult to breath when he finally catches her about the waist. Annabeth shrieks and they both topple backwards onto hot sand, panting.

"I love you," he says without thinking, because it's _always_ difficult to think around this girl.

Grey eyes go wide and he feels himself turning red, but he doesn't bite the words back, doesn't stutter over himself and make like he meant something different. He just swallows, watching her.

She hits him on the shoulder, hard. "You jerk, I can't believe it's taken you this long to say it!" And then she all but throws herself at him, kissing him over and over until they're both breathless for another reason entirely. But she still finds the air to whisper it back.

**19. serve**  
Of course, the one time Percy tries to take Annabeth out for dinner, the waiters turn out to be Canadians. In the monster sense. Fighting Greek horrors together is a great bonding experience and all, but Percy had really wanted to _eat_ off the dinner plates, not use them as projectiles.

**20. reach**  
The worst moment in Percy's life is not when he falls into Tartarus with Annabeth. It's a few seconds before that, when he thinks he won't reach her in time.

**21. offer**  
"Zeus is going to be so mad at you for turning down his offer, Percy. Did you see the look on his face?" Annabeth is _trying_ to sound chiding, but he can hear the satisfied smile in her voice. And the relief.

"Yeah, I _felt_ it." He glances sideways at her. "It was worth it."

**22. lean**  
Annabeth bites her lip, trying to drag her eyes away from the sight of a shirtless Percy Jackson dragging himself out of a pool. It's not _fair_, the way his muscles shift, water dripping off his lithe, lean physique. He was nowhere near that good-looking when she met him. Never mind that he'd been twelve.

And then he looks over at her, and just about trips over his own feet. Annabeth raises her eyebrows before glancing down at the bikini Piper had helped her pick out. She grins.

Maybe it was a little fair.

**23. break**  
Tartarus does its best to break them, assaulting them over and over with a never ending stream of horrors. But it can't make Percy and Annabeth untangle their fingers. And so long as they don't lose each other, they can't lose themselves.

**24. play**  
"Are they…going to be okay?" Hazel asks her brother uncertainly, watching as Annabeth and Percy gesticulate at each other. They're clearly yelling, but what about, Hazel can't tell.

Nico gives them a glance, before snorting. "Okay? They're _enjoying_ themselves."

**25. cover**  
It's a reaction so instinctive, not even Annabeth thinks it through before she throws herself at Percy, knocking him down. Never mind that there's a supply of water nearby, never mind that he's learned to use it as a _shield_ now – none of that is important. She takes the brunt of the blast, crying out in pain as fire rips up her back.

She's fine after a bit of nectar, of course, but Percy still freaks out. "You seriously have to stop doing that," he tells her. "One of these days I'm going to have a heart attack, and then how are you going to feel?"

She simply raises her eyebrows at him. "I'll stop when you do."

There's not really anything he can say to that.

**26. settle**  
Family. It's a complicated word for every demigod, but Percy somehow seems to bear it easier than any halfblood she's ever met.

She twists her father's ring around on her necklace, and wonders if she can ever give him that. She's never even let herself consider the idea of settling down, not when it felt sometimes like she's gone through this life losing family rather than the other way around.

But Percy is so damn _Percy_, he crashes along and opens her mind to the possibility anyway. And while she doesn't know if she wants to make that possibility a reality, yet, she does know that she won't turn her back on it either.

**27. push**  
There are some dark, lonely nights on Percy's road to Camp Jupiter, moments when even his panda pillow and Lupa's words can't push him onwards. It's Annabeth that keeps him going, a name and a feeling so powerful, he's willing to give up invincibility for it.

**28. cry**  
The weird thing is, they don't cry in Tartarus. And they don't cry when they get out, either. It's the middle of the day after it's all over, when Gaea is defeated and everyone has gone their own separate ways to celebrate or commiserate as they need to.

They look at each other, and the dam breaks. And they sit in the middle of Percy's cabin and hold each other until it's over.

Except, it'll never really be over. And they never really stop holding on to each other, in one way or another.

**29. shake**  
She doesn't shake him when she's mad, or scared, or so relieved she thinks she might fall over. She beats the crap out of him instead. And it has to be true love, because he always walks away grinning, and she always ends up kissing him instead of hitting him again.

**30. climb**  
They don't climb out of that pit so much as drag themselves, inch by agonising inch, towards the doors. And Tartarus delights in pushing those doors another two inches forward every time they make a move.

But they've defeated the odds before. In fact, as Percy points out as they huddle together for safety and warmth and comfort and _each other_, the less likely it seems as though they'll make it out of this together, the more likely it is that they will.

They have that kind of track record together.


End file.
